Education reporter

The United States and the rest of the world will face more daunting challenges than just finding cheap gas for our cars, according to geologist Vince Matthews.

Oil is just one of many natural resources the world is depleting in what has become a mad scramble not just for energy sources, but many critical minerals and metals, said Matthews, a UGA graduate who is now Colorado’s state geologist.

“Are we going to be able to get the resources we need at any price?” he asked a small crowd in UGA’s Geography-Geology Building on Friday. “The pressure to develop these is going to become pretty intense.”

Americans consume more and more resources, not just collectively but per capita. And at the same time, the fast-growing economies of China and India are consuming more and more of the world’s natural resources, Matthews said.

We worry about gas prices, but metals like copper, which has increased in price by about 500 percent since 2008, are also becoming scarce as we accelerate our depletion of the Earth’s resources.

Important minerals that many of us are only vaguely aware of, like molybdenum, cadmium and selenium, are also becoming scarce and expensive.

Of all the copper ever mined in the history of the world, half has been pulled out of the ground just in the last 25 years, he said. And of all the oil humanity has ever burned, we’ve consumed half of that in that same quarter-century — and the pace is increasing, said Matthews.

Coal, one energy source the U.S. has in abundance, has tripled in price in the past couple of years.

The U.S. has large reserves of coal and natural gas, but China wants to tap into those, too, he said.

Between 1990 and 2010, China doubled its coal consumption. China produced all its own coal up through 2006, but no more, he said. “They are looking to buy coal throughout the United States,” he said.

China’s consumption of iron ore, copper, concrete and many other resources has climbed astronomically over the past two decades; for many resources, the Asian nation is now both the No. 1 producer in the world and the No. 1 consumer.

“The numbers in China are just astounding. I can recite them, but I can’t really comprehend them,” Matthews said.

The United States remains for now the world’s largest producer of nuclear energy, but trouble is looming on that front, too, Matthews said.

The world now uses about 180 million pounds of uranium a year, but produces only about 100 million pounds. We’re drawing down on stockpiles of uranium, but those reserves are just about gone now, he said.

And foreign companies increasingly own the extractive industries like mining and oil drilling that produce resources, he said.

“Even though we may have these resources, we may not be able to get them,” he said.

We import 61 percent of our oil, down from 69 percent a few years ago and 90 percent of our uranium, he said.

For many important minerals and metals, the United States imports 100 percent of its supplies, he said.

The global scramble for resources is even pushing up food prices as the price of fertilizer goes through the roof, he said.

Combined with the United States’ massive debt problems, the intensifying competition for resources spell an uncertain future for Americans in the next few years, Matthews said.

“If you think we’re going to convert from fossil fuel to renewables in a short period of time — it’s just not going to happen,” he said.

“I’m not really worried about 20 or 30 years from now, because we’ll muddle through things. But for the next decade, we’re not prepared,” he said.